


Back To Belonging

by flipflop_diva



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: BAMF Pepper Potts, Established Relationship, F/F, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Natasha Needs a Hug, On the Run, Past Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Post-Civil War (Marvel), Protective Pepper Potts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-13
Updated: 2017-10-13
Packaged: 2019-01-10 08:25:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12295236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flipflop_diva/pseuds/flipflop_diva
Summary: She wasn’t exactly the last person Pepper thought was going to be at the door on a rainy September evening, but she definitely wasn’t the first either.





	Back To Belonging

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Kithri](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kithri/gifts).



> Written for the 2017 Femslash Exchange. I hope you enjoy!

She wasn’t exactly the last person Pepper thought was going to be at the door on a rainy September evening, but she definitely wasn’t the first either.

It’d been more than a year since she had last seen her, at a party for the Stark Foundation that Tony at the time had insisted be attended by every current (and past) Avenger. She’d been wearing black — her signature color — with her hair in curls hanging down her back. Pepper remembered thinking how much more comfortable she’d seemed in the spotlight than when she first knew her.

Back when she was Natalie, she’d been in a lot of spotlights, but all of it had been a façade. Now it was her. No masks, no hiding behind a pretend version of someone else. And she had seemed a lot more okay with it than just a few years before, after the Chitauri had attacked New York. Back then, Pepper had once spent three hours explaining to her why it really was important that she talk to the media, too, and not just let Tony do it.

Now, though, standing at Pepper’s front door, she looked far from the polished, put-together Avenger she had been that night she’d last seen her. She was drenched from the rain, her newly short and blonde hair plastered to her head. She looked exhausted and like she had lost ten pounds in the last few weeks. She also seemed to be injured. Her arms were wrapped around her abdomen, and she was hunched a little to the side.

Pepper knew better than to ask too many questions. She just opened the door a little wider and ushered Natasha inside.

“Is anyone following you?” she asked as she led her straight through the living room and into the bathroom, immediately gesturing for Natasha to sit on the counter while she searched for the first-aid kit she always had on hand, ever since she met Tony years ago.

“No. I lost them.” Natasha tried to reach out for the bandages and the needle when Pepper stood up. “I can do that.”

“I know you can,” Pepper said. “But you’re not going to.”

“Pepper …”

“You showed up on my door. So you’re going to sit there and answer my questions and let me patch you up. Got it?”

Natasha nodded.

“Do you know who was following you?” Pepper asked. She leaned over Natasha, carefully edging the top she was wear up enough to see the wound on her belly. 

It was large and deep, just above the scar she had once told Pepper she had gotten from the Winter Soldier years before. This new one was definitely a knife wound.

“A lot of people are following me,” Natasha said. At Pepper’s raised brow, she sighed. “I am a wanted fugitive,” she said.

“Yes,” Pepper said. “I hear about you on the evening news every day and about all the destruction you’re causing around the world.”

“None of that’s true.” Natasha sounded almost defensive.

Pepper smiled at her, reaching for the antiseptic. “I know,” she told her. “This might hurt.”

“It’s fine.”

“Do you know who in particular was following you this time?’

“No.”

“Do you want to tell me why you picked to come here?”

Natasha blinked, looked down at her wound then back up again, meeting Pepper’s eyes. Pepper could see her deciding if she should trust her with the truth.

“I let you in,” Pepper reminded her.

“I needed a friend,” Natasha said. “I don’t have many of them left.”

Pepper finished wiping the blood off Natasha’s wound. She tossed the bloody strips of cloth into the trash, then turned to grab the needle and thread so she could stitch her up. 

“I think you have more friends than you think.” She held up the needle, ready to go. “I don’t have any morphine.”

“I can handle pain.”

“You do know you don’t have to all the time, right? This isn’t the Red Room.”

Natasha shrugged. “Just do it.”

Pepper inserted the needle into Natasha’s skin. She felt her tense just a little, but she didn’t make a noise. Not until Pepper finished and cut the thread. Then she spoke again.

“Tony hates me. He thinks I betrayed him. Rhodey probably does too.”

“Tony shouldn’t be judging other people,” Pepper said.

“He told me you two broke up.”

“We did.”

“I heard rumors you were on the rebound with Maria Hill.”

“It was one date,” Pepper said. “Did Tony give you that rumor?”

Natasha shrugged.

“Come on.” Pepper held out her hand, helping Natasha off the counter. “Let’s find you something to wear that isn’t soaking wet. I don’t need an assassin with pneumonia sleeping beside me.”

“Beside you?” Natasha said.

“Come on, Nat,” she said, leading the way into her bedroom. “It’s not like it’d be the first time.”

•••

It took two days before Natasha told her the rest of the truth. They were lying in bed, Natasha’s head resting on Pepper’s stomach, Pepper’s fingers carding through her curls.

“I heard chatter,” Natasha said. “From … someone. That people are mad at Tony for some of what happened with the Avengers. That people want payback. That maybe getting it from Stark Industries is a way to do that.”

Pepper pursed her lips. “And you came here to save me?”

“Yes.”

“How’d you get back into New York?”

“You don’t want to know.”

Natasha twisted her head so she could look more carefully at Pepper. “I did need a friend, though,” she added.

“Just a friend?” Pepper’s fingers left Natasha’s hair and traced down her bare back, dipping under the sheets a bit. Natasha squirmed just slightly.

“I thought you were with Maria.”

“Did you?”

Natasha’s eyes drifted closed. “I’m not good for anyone,” she whispered. “If I’m with you, they’ll hurt you to get to me. You know that.”

“Maybe I want to protect you for a change.”

“Maybe I’m not worth it.”

Pepper’s hand stopped moving. Instead she moved her palm to the middle of Natasha’s back, letting her feel the weight and the warmth of her hand.

“Maybe you should let me decide that.”

“Pepper …” It was barely a breath. Pepper paid no mind.

“Maybe you should stop running.”

“If they come after you …”

“Then we’ll handle them.”

Natasha sighed. “Maybe I don’t deserve you,” she said quietly.

Pepper hummed. “Maybe,” she said, “you do.”


End file.
